We are referring to an often little known and unique, world-wide social club of which there is a Philadelphia chapter since 1895 with the name Schlaraffia Filadelfia. Schlaraffia flourishes when individuals interact and mix friendship, art and humor with fun and forbearance at their gatherings and via Zoom. The participants value and enjoy this as an uplifting addition to their existence or a welcome respite from difficult, stressful or mundane aspects of daily life.
German [but not only German] is spoken in Schlaraffia. Wherever German is not the primary language, Schlaraffia becomes a powerful connection to the German culture and language. Poetry, music, singing and other forms of art are integral parts of most gatherings of Schlaraffen and their friends, the ladies and men who are not members of Schlaraffia.
Excluded from their gatherings are serious discussions of politics, religion, business and anything that could be considered to be below the belt or likely to offend. Camaradery, rejuvenation and fun are the goals here.
One way of exploring Schlaraffia is to participate at gatherings of the “Freundeskreis Filadelfia” which includes ladies and men who currently meet four times a year with members of Schlaraffia Filadelfia in the Schlaraffenroom at the Vereinigung Erzgebirge, 130 Davisville Rd, Warminster PA.
These gatherings are conducted in German and/or English as needed and are a mixture of friendship, art and humor with fun and forbearance but do not include adherance to practices and rules followed worldwide by the nearly 8000 men who are members of Schlaraffia.
Personal invitations are required for these and other gatherings in the Schlaraffenroom where seating is limited and overcrowding is not desired. Since the seating is limited, interested individuals are invited to contact Stefan Jochum<philadelphia.freund@gmail.com> via Email or comments at https://netterunden.blogspot.com/. Usually, there is no admission fee for these events since the participants purchase what they need from the bar.
A second way of exploring Schlaraffia is to obtain an invitation to attend a regular meeting where members of Schlaraffia follow the rules and practices defined in their “Schlaraffen-Spiegel und Ceremoniale”. Age is not a concern in Schlaraffia. Members in their 20s to their 90s complement and support each other very well here.
Schlaraffia is not a secret society and more information is available at such sites as the following, to name just a few [for quick access, you can copy and past the URL, use ctrl/click or the QR codes - whatever works for you]: http://schlaraffen.info/ --- https://www.filadelfia128.org/ --- https://schlaraffen.com/ --- https://www.schlaraffia.org/
and get answers to three questions:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hDvmyit0lbY&list=PLSu3iQ2pjHaFuCh-La2KsYbV0MaGof7sp&index=29
or visit https://www.facebook.com/schlaraffiaphiladelphia if you have a face-book account
